Plans for UK Supercasinos to Move Forward?

Although the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, symbolically axed Britain's first Las Vegas-style supercasino, it has emerged that 16 gambling palaces would still move forward. Churches and charities warned that casinos with hundreds of slot machines offering £4,000 jackpots would push up crime, addiction and poverty in the most rundown communities.

Mr Brown won plaudits when one of his first acts as Prime Minister was to block plans to build a supercasino offering £1million jackpots from 1,250 one-armed bandits in a deprived area of Manchester. He also ordered a review into the other 16 casinos - raising hopes he would kill off the gambling free-for-all championed by his predecessor Tony Blair. But yesterday, Whitehall sources signalled that eight large and eight medium-sized casinos would go ahead.

Large casinos, 15,000 sq ft in size with 150 machines offering £4,000 jackpots, are planned for Leeds, Hull, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Great Yarmouth, Solihull, Southampton and Newham, East London. Smaller casinos of 7,500 sq ft and boasting 80 machines also offering £4,000 prizes will be developed in Stranraer, Skegness, Bath, Luton, Scarborough, Swansea, Torbay and Wolverhampton.

Britain currently has about 140 casinos which may offer £4,000 jackpots. However, they may operate only 20 slot machines. Anti-gambling campaigners said the decision, to be confirmed by UK Culture Secretary James Purnell within weeks, would trigger social devastation in some of the most vulnerable communities.

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